The Jewish community overall has a common religion, culture, identity, and ethnicity, but individual Jews do not necessarily share all of these; therefore, a person might be a Jew by one standpoint but not by another.

Additionally, there are some religious groups that identify themselves as part of Judaism, but that other Jewish groups might not; hence, use of the term Jew often depends on the speaker's opinions.

The noun Jew is not offensive, and the overwhelming majority of English-speaking Jews use the noun Jew to identify themselves.

That said, it has become offensive for historical reasons to use the word Jew attributively, in modifying another noun (as in "Jew lawyer"); the adjective Jewish is preferred for this purpose.

Additionally, the derived verbs jew and jew down are considered offensive, as they reflect stereotypes considered offensive.